Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Supported by

Jonathan Alter Leaves Newsweek

By Tanzina Vega April 11, 2011 6:49 pmApril 11, 2011 6:49 pm

Jonathan Alter, a long-time columnist for Newsweek, has left the publication after 28 years there. Though his last day on the Newsweek payroll was over a week ago, Mr. Alter said he had not yet “completed my deal with my new employer.”

Damien DonckJonathan Alter

In an interview, Mr. Alter, 53, declined to name his new employer was but said the job would be in “print” rather than television. Mr. Alter is currently under contract with NBC News and appears on MSNBC regularly as an analyst. He has been with NBC since 1996.

“It was just time for me to do something different, and I have something exciting that’s going to be announced,” Mr. Alter said. He will continue to contribute to Newsweek as a freelancer.

Mr. Alter said that his departure was not an indication of any ill will toward the magazine’s new leaders, Sidney Harman and Tina Brown. “I have the highest regard for Sidney,” Mr. Alter said of Mr. Harman, the 92-year-old audio magnate who purchased the ailing Newsweek in August.

“Being the last of the old guard, I did want to stick around and make sure that it was in good hands.” Of Tina Brown, Mr. Alter said, “I like Newsweek, I think it’s in good hands, I think Tina is a terrific editor.” Newsweek and Ms. Brown’s Daily Beast merged shortly after the sale to Mr. Harman.

“Jonathan has been a great asset to Newsweek whose reporting helped shape the magazine’s coverage for many years. We wish him the all the best,” Andrew Kirk, the director for public relations at Newsweek, said in an e-mail.

Mr. Alter is the author of the books “The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope”; “The Promise: President Obama, Year One”; and a collection of columns called “Between the Lines.”